Health

OK, there is now no doubt in my mind that what’s happening to my toe is gout. Last night, the pain was bad enough to wake me up, so I took more advil and went back to sleep. Today I took some alleve, which really did work for about 12 hours, and is now starting to wear off so I took another. I’m going in to the doctor tomorrow morning at 9:45 (yes, saturday) so we’ll see what he has to say. He will probably say to keep taking the alleve and change my diet. Apparently, burning fat on the low-carb diet also contributes to uric acid in the blood, so that compounds the effect of eating more meats. I have been making sure to drink lots of water. ...

Good news… I have lost about 8 or 9 pounds, after being on the low-carb diet for a little over 3 weeks. Bad news… I developed some excruciating pain in my big toe. I can’t think what I might have done to bruise or strain it. What does a painful toe have to do with my diet? Hopefully nothing, but it could be gout. According to wikipedia: Gout is a form of arthritis caused by the accumulation of uric acid crystals in joints. It is an immensely painful disease, which in most cases affects only one joint, most commonly the big toe. ...

Tonight we had esmerel, merlinofchaos, and da_zhuang around for dinner. Everything turned out well, I think. And, I think just about everything was low-carb, which was good for my diet. I probably had more food than I planned to, but I think I’ve done reasonably well the last week or so, so I’m not going to feel guilty. Salad with arugulla, butter lettuce, radicchio, cucumbers, tomato, avocado, green onion. Two salad dressings (soy-mayo and honey mustard) made with the homemade mayo. Merlin made the honey mustard… turned out good Artichokes, a little tiny bit overdone but I don’t think anyone noticed. Dipping sauce, about 3 parts mayo to 1 part vietnamese “chili garlic sauce” - this was a hit I think. Meat, which I thought was filet mignon, but was probably some other loin cut. Salt, garlic, pepper. Broiled 5 min each side. (Supermarkets don’t seem to sell filet much anymore.) Broccoli, steamed, which was probably overkill but I wanted something else in case the ‘chokes didn’t work. ...

Exercise log for April Fri 4/1: (Still on low-carb diet) Sat 4/2: Sun 4/3: Mon 4/4: Tue 4/5: Wed 4/6: Pain in my toe started. BP around 130/80. Thu 4/7: Pain in toe was worse. Stayed home. Stopped taking thiazide. Took advil. Fri 4/8: Pain in toe was very bad. Took naproxen. Sat 4/9: Pain in toe was better, about the same as Thursday. Weight: 243.8 (bare) 248.8 (clothes but no shoes). Doctor visit. Started Colchicine, NSAID, and doubled Lotensin. Sun 4/10: Mon 4/11: Tue 4/12: Wed 4/13: Thu 4/14: Fri 4/15: Sat 4/16: Sun 4/17: Mon 4/18: Tue 4/19: Wed 4/20: Thu 4/21: Fri 4/22: Sat 4/23: Sun 4/24: Mon 4/25: Tue 4/26: Wed 4/27: Thu 4/28: Fri 4/29: Sat 4/30:

I believe I have lost roughly 3 pounds over the last 2 weeks. According to the medical-style scale downstairs, I currently weigh 255 with shoes on, 252 with shoes off. The same scale put me at 258 two weeks ago, and still at 258 one week ago. So, three pounds lighter or so. On advice from a friend, I decided to “make the food boring and get it over with”. So, for the next couple weeks I will be on the “lunchmeat and salad” diet. ...

I wrote down my foods but I won’t copy them all here. The short version is that I have been sticking to the low-carb diet (as described in Atkins “Induction phase”). It’s been a lot easier than I thought. I haven’t really been missing my bread, pasta or sugar. The real difficulty for me is finding interesting things to eat, but that is an intellectual and logistical problem for me, and not one that causes me much distress. ...

I’m going to try and record everything I eat for the next 30 days, whether I am able to stay on the low-carb plan or not. I don’t expect anyone to read the entries. But, if you happen to notice that I’m counting carbs wrong, OK to let me know :) Monday 3/14 I wanted to use a one-day fast to start things off, but M wanted to have sushi, so we went to Tokyo Sushi. I had: salmon sushi and Phillidelphia rolls without the rice (salmon, small amount of cream cheese), soy sauce, miso soup, small salad with a sweetish vinegar dressing, mussels, and soybeans. The mussels had some sort of dressing on it that was mayo-like… I scraped most of it off and squeezed on lemon juice. ...

I have decided to try eating very few carbs for the next week or three, to see what happens. In the past I have been skeptical of the low-carb (or no-carb) diets, mostly because I feel it should be possible to eat a “balanced” diet, in moderation, and be well, live happy. I have a feeling that the low-carb craze is a direct result of the “low fat” craze that has been omnipresent in this country & culture for some decades. We have become so used to “low fat” items and have traded carbs for fats. Now, the pendulum swings the other way and “low carb” is the craze, but neither of these appeals to my inner sense of symmetry. ...

Exercise log for March Tue 3/1: Wed 3/2: Thu 3/3: Fri 3/4: Sat 3/5: Exercise bike, 45 min Sun 3/6: Exercise bike, 45 min Mon 3/7: Bike ride, 35 min Tue 3/8: Wed 3/9: Exercise bike, 45 min Thu 3/10: Fri 3/11: Walking, 40 min Sat 3/12: Walking, 45 min Sun 3/13: Mon 3/14: (Start low-carb diet) Best estimate, my weight was 255 at this time (clothes but no shoes) or 258 (with shoes) which would probably equate to 250 (bare). Tue 3/15: Wed 3/16: Thu 3/17: Fri 3/18: Sat 3/19: Sun 3/20: Mon 3/21: Exercise bike, 45 min Tue 3/22: Stairs, 25 flights, 30 min Wed 3/23: Stairs, 26 flights, 30 min Thu 3/24: Fri 3/25: Sat 3/26: Sun 3/27: Mon 3/28: Tue 3/29: Wed 3/30: Thu 3/31:

Installed air conditioner (temporary installation, involves cardboard and packing tape. Made dinner. Did the rest of the dishes. Updated to-do list. Failed to do curtains, mainly because it’s phucking hot and the AC got bumped up in priority. Oh and M and I got this new diet/exercise plan, called something like the Six Week Total Body Makeover. It allows you to customize exercise and diet to your particular body style. For me it’s a minor variation on “Eat a reasonable balance, watch portion sizes, and do something aerobic to burn fat” since I didn’t really want to shape my body or bulk up, though there are some shaping exercises I might do. For M there are more exercises and a diet that’s about the same with slightly smaller portions. Anyway, it should be interesting.